Untitled Document Shakespearean Morality in Measure for Measure Mary Ann Leone, 2006 I have begun, And now I give my sensual race the rein (2.4: 158-9). To the casual reader of Measure for Measure, the plot may seem to revolve around sexual conduct in Renaissance England and the legal consequences thereof. Nineteenth century critics, however, believed Shakespeareï¿½s play to be a ï¿½study of mercy and forgiveness, rather than of justice and legal equityï¿½ (Lanzen 383). In the early 1800s critics of the play focused more on thematic and the psychological developments rather than passing judgment on the morals of the characters. ï¿½ In his ï¿½Lectures on Dramatic Literature,ï¿½August Wilhelm Schlegel [German translator of Shakespeare] wrote, ï¿½The piece takes improperly its name from the punishment: the sense of the whole is properly the triumph of mercy over strict justice, no man being himself so secure from errors as to be entitled to deal it out amongst his equalsï¿½ (Howe 5: 281).

Two contemporaries of Schlegel, Ulrici and Gervinus, elaborate on this concept. Ulrici, who defines Measure for Measure as ï¿½a perfect comedy,ï¿½ states that the play highlights the failure of human justice and the triumph of Christian mercy, ï¿½ ï¿½that all of humanity exists in sin and that only through the grace of God can we hope to achieve a truly virtuous and moral lifeï¿½ (Lanzen, 383). ï¿½ Gervinus notes character deficiencies. He declares the Duke and Angelo to be polar opposites in their leadership abilities, the former due to laxity and the latter because of his dogged determination to mete out justice with unbecoming zeal (Lanzen 383).

Another early nineteenth century critic William Hazlitt describes the play ï¿½as full of genius,ï¿½ but adds that ï¿½our sympathies are repulsed and defeated in all directions.ï¿½ ï¿½ He dismisses Angelo, who ï¿½seems to have a much greater passion for hypocrisy than for his mistress,ï¿½ and decries Isabellaï¿½s ï¿½rigid chastity.ï¿½ Only Claudio deserves our sympathy, ï¿½and yet he is placed in circumstances of distress which almost preclude the wish for his deliverance,ï¿½ Hazlitt laments. ï¿½ He calls Shakespeareï¿½s alienation of audience sympathy a ï¿½principle of repugnanceï¿½ (Howe 4: 345-6). Mid-century critics included Charles Knight, H. N. Hudson, and Frederick S. Boas. Knight sees Measure for Measure as a caveat against ineffectual government and society contaminated by a ï¿½corrupt state of mannersï¿½ (Lanzen 384).

ï¿½ Hudson joined Knight in his criticism of what they perceived as Shakespeareï¿½s lopsided treatment of justice and mercy at its finish. ï¿½ Hudson also considered the playwrightï¿½s personal life and also the chaotic times in which he lived, proposing that at the time Shakespeare penned this play, he had become ï¿½fascinated by the appalling mystery of evil that haunts our fallen natureï¿½ (Lanzen 384). Boas, who coined the phrase, ï¿½problem-plays,ï¿½ ï¿½ proposed that Shakespeareï¿½s departure from lighter fare to a more complex and perhaps more pessimistic view of the world was a direct result of the fate suffered by two of his friends. In 1601 (three years before the opening performance of Measure for Measure), the Earl of Essex was executed, and Lord Southampton was inprisoned, both due to allegations of their involvement in treasonous plots against Queen Elizabeth (Lanzen 384).

In 1874 Walter Pater ï¿½ revisits the problems presented in Measure for Measure and describes the setting of the play in his book, Appreciations, with an Essay on Style: It brings before us a group of persons, attractive, full of desire, vessels of thegenial, seed-bearing powers of nature, a gaudy existence flowering out over theold court and city of Vienna, a spectacle of the fulness and pride of life. ï¿½ Thenwhat shall there be on this side of itï¿½the spectatorsï¿½ sideï¿½? ï¿½ What philosophy, what sort of equity? (173-4). Pater writes that Shakespeare transcends earlier incarnations of the play, citing specifically Cinthioï¿½s historical sketch that Whetstone (another 17th century writer) used in Promos and Cassandra, ï¿½in which the mere energy of southern passion has everything its own wayï¿½ (Pater 172).

Pater claims that Shakespeareï¿½s work ï¿½rises, full of solemn expression, and with a profoundly designed beautyï¿½ in poetry that is often a challenge for the audience or reader (Pater 173). ï¿½Measure for Measure, ï¿½ writes Pater, ï¿½by the quality of these higher designs, woven by his strange magic on a texture of poorer qualityï¿½ allows the audience to grasp ï¿½Shakespeareï¿½s reasonï¿½[and] his power of moral interpretationï¿½ (Pater 173). Pater explains that in this play, Shakespeare brilliantly retains ï¿½traces of the old ï¿½moralityï¿½ ï¿½ that give it a peculiar ethical interestï¿½Here the very intricacy and subtlety of the moral world itself,ï¿½the difficulty of just judgmentï¿½are the lessons conveyedï¿½ (Pater, 182). The resolution of this problem, Pater continues, is through an understanding that ï¿½poetic justice,ï¿½true justice is in its essence a finer knowledge through love.

ï¿½ It is for this finer justiceï¿½that the people in Measure for Measure cry out as they pass before usï¿½so in its ethics it is an epitome of Shakespeareï¿½s moral judgmentsï¿½ (Pater 183). In fact, Pater states that by Shakespeareï¿½s ï¿½infusing a lavish colour and a profound significance into [Measure for Measure]ï¿½that the play might well pass for the central expression of his moral judgmentsï¿½ (Pater 170-1) John Morely writes in Studies in Literature that ï¿½perhaps the crude and incessant application of a narrow moral standard, thoroughly misunderstood, is one of the intellectual dangers of our timeï¿½ (339). ï¿½ He conjectures that the average admirer of Shakespeare most likely does not classify him as a moralist. ï¿½ ï¿½But [he claims] one great creative poet probably exerts a nobler, deeper, more permanent ethical influence than a dozen generations of professed moral teachersï¿½ (268).

ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ In the Complete Works of William Hazlitt, the author discusses his perception of the playwrightï¿½s ethics as they appear in his works: Shakespeare was in one sense the least moral of all writers; for moralityï¿½is madeof antipathies; and his talent consisted in sympathy with human nature, in all itsshapes, degrees, depressions and elevations. ï¿½ The object of the pedantic moralist is to find out the bad in everything; his was to show that ï¿½there is some soul of goodness in things evilï¿½ï¿½In one sense, Shakespear was no moralist at all; in another, he was the greatest of all moralistsï¿½ ï¿½ ( 4:346-7). Samuel Taylor Coleridge shares none of the discourse on the questions of morality that his contemporaries wrestled with and goes so far as to say it is the ï¿½only painful part of [Shakespeareï¿½s] genuine worksï¿½ (Hawkes 249).

ï¿½ He writes that justice is not served in the end, that Isabella is ï¿½unamiable,ï¿½ and Claudio ï¿½detestableï¿½ (Hawkes 250). As can be seen by this sampling of reviews of Measure for Measure in the nineteenth century, there is no one viewpoint that can be taken as the true interpretation of Shakespeareï¿½s play about justice and mercy. ï¿½ Was this play inconclusive, unsatisfactory, even odious in its troublesome look at society? ï¿½ Or does Shakespeare offer to the perceptive observer a fresher, deeper perspective of complex issues that can take one to a higher plane of existence? Ultimately, it is the burden and joy of each reader to ponder the moral implications presented by the most revered playwright of our time.

Toward this end, one might do well to heed the rather startling words offered by Coleridge in the first of his series of lectures on Shakespeare at the Royal Institution: Reviews are generally pernicious, becauseï¿½they teach people rather to judge than to consider, to decide than to reflect: thus they encourage superficiality, and induce the thoughtless and the idle to adopt sentiments conveyed under the authoritative We, and not, by the working and subsequent clearing of their own minds (Rhys 390). There is much to ponder for the serious reader and observer of human nature, as seen through the beauty and complexity of Shakespeareï¿½s words: ï¿½Tis very pregnant: The jewel that we find we stoop and take it, Because we see it; but what we do not see We tread upon, and never think of it (2.1: 23-6). Works Cited Greenblatt, Stephen, Walter Cohen, Jean Howard, and Katharine Eisaman Maus. ï¿½ The Norton Shakespeare Based on the Oxford Edition. ï¿½ New York: Norton, 1997. Hazlitt, William.

ï¿½ Table-Talk: Original Essays on Men and Manners. ï¿½ London: Cassell, 1909. Howe, P.P. ï¿½ The Complete Works of William Hazlitt. Vol. 4. ï¿½ London: Dent, 1930. Howe, P.P. ï¿½ The Complete Works of William Hazlitt. Vol. 5. ï¿½ London: Dent, 1930. Lanzen, Laurie Harris, and Mark W. Scott, eds. ï¿½ Shakespearean Criticism: Excerpts from The Criticism of William Shakespeareï¿½s Plays and Poetry from the First Published Appraisals to Current Evaluations. ï¿½ Vol. 2. ï¿½ Detroit: Gale, 1980. Morley, John. ï¿½ Studies in Literature. ï¿½ New York: MacMillan, 1907. Pater, Walter. ï¿½ Appreciations with an Essay on Style. ï¿½ London: MacMillan, 1911. Rhys, Ernest, ed. ï¿½ Coleridgeï¿½s Essays and Lectures on Shakespeare.

ï¿½ London: Dent, 1919. Measure for Measure directed by Dominic Dromgoole / Shakespeare's Globe Please note: this production has now closed The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept. Vincentio, Duke of Vienna, disgusted by the immorality in his city, announces his withdrawal from public life and leaves his deputy, the puritanical Angelo, in charge. Angelo, in his zeal for observing the letter of the law, begins a ruthless programme to stamp out sexual licence, in the course of which he condemns one Claudio to death. Surely Claudio’s virginal sister Isabella, a novice nun seeking mercy for her brother, could not awake the lust of this cold, censorious man? Injustice, hypocrisy and the challenge of inflexible virtue combine in Shakespeare’s most searching exploration of sexual politics and social justice. Reviews 'A production that gives us light as well as shade...Dromgoole’s production really sings' Time Out ★★★★ 'Rich, messy and human... Mariah Gale gives a performance of delicacy and force as Isabella...

As the Duke, Dominic Rowan milks the comedy from the scenes where his character is disguised as a friar, but he also brings a moral intricacy to the role' The Stage 'Irrepressively lively... manages to make instantaneous shifts between uproarious bawdy and theatre-hushing seriousness' The Independent ★★★★ 'Dominic Dromgoole’s staging finds more broad comedy in this dark, troubling play than you might expect' Financial Times ★★★★ 'Dominic Dromgoole shows all his experience in his final production in the Globe's outdoor space... Mariah Gale is an outstanding Isabella' The Sunday Times 'The beautiful eloquence of the verse, and heartfelt nature of the acting, send unseasonal shivers down the spine' The Daily Telegraph 'Shakespeare without a safety net... It’s noisy, it’s earthy, it’s unruly… Here’s a corking good time, clear enough to make the play count, with a quite astonishing feat of acting at its heart' Variety Globe Outside In A unique opportunity to see Measure for Measure and other summer season productions transported to our beautiful indoor candlelit Playhouse. Experience these exciting productions in this intimate setting.

Measure for Measure Play: Overview of Measure for Measure Measure for Measure Play: Overview & Resources You are here: Home / Measure for Measure Play: Overview & Resources The Measure for Measure play is set in Vienna whose streets and taverns are teeming with criminals, prostitutes and pimps. Most of the action takes place in the Duke’s palace. Some scenes are set in the city prison and others in the streets of Vienna. The final, large, scene resolves all the strands at the city gates. Read more about Measure For Measure settings . Date written: 1603 Genre classification: Measure for Measure has traditionally been classified as a Comedy but because of the difficulties of placing it into one of the more clear-cut categories it’s considered to be one of the Problem Plays. Main characters in Measure for Measure: Duke Vincentio wishes to clean up the city, which has become infested with vice. He appoints Angelo to do that while he pretends to leave Vienna temporarily, but remains, walking about in disguise, observing the process. Isabella, the sister of the inoffensive young Claudio, is a virtuous young woman around whom the action revolves. She is about to dedicate her life to God, as a nun.

Claudio has been imprisoned and sentenced to death under the new laws, for fornication, because he has made his beloved Juliet, a sweet young woman, pregnant. Lucio, a laddish friend of Isabella, persuades her to approach Angelo and plead for her brother’s release. Angelo agrees to do so but only if Isabella will sleep with him. Escalus is the Duke’s trusted advisor. Mariana, a sad young woman, was once engaged to Angelo but he abandoned her because her dowry had been lost in a shipwreck. The Provost is the officer in charge of the prison. He is a good, compassionate man, reluctant to carry out the death sentence on Claudio. Elbow is an honest but hopeless police constable. Barnadine is the drunken cellmate of Claudio. Abhorson is the official executioner. Mistress Overdone is the madame of a brothel and Pompey is her pimp. Francisca is a nun, and Thomas and Peter are friars. Ragozine is a pirate who is executed and his head substituted for Claudio’s. Frost is one of the city fools.

See a full character list for Measure for Measure Measure for Measure themes: One of the main themes in this play is the position of women in society and their exploitation. This play is a favourite among feminist enthusiasts and provides an answer to the charge that Shakespeare is sexist. Another major theme is the corruptive nature of power. Another is hypocrisy. An important consideration in Measure for Measure is the nature of civil authority where strong leadership is required but should be tempered by compassion, mercy and common sense. As usual in Shakespeare the play is deeply concerned with the way things seem to be versus how they really are – appearance and reality. People are not what they seem to be, from the disguised Duke to the hypocritical Angelo. Measure for Measure Play Resources: Measure for Measure Study Guide Compiled by Michael J. Cummings ï¿½ 2003, 2010, 2011, 2016 Type of Work: Problem Comedy .

Measure for Measure, although technically a comedy, has received distinction as one of Shakespeare's three "problem plays" (along with All's Well That Ends Well and Troilus and Cressida) because it presents as heroes or heroines characters who are seriously flawed in some way and, thus, problematical for audiences used to applauding and identifying with flawless heroes and heroines. Composition and First Performance . The best evidence indicates that Shakespeare probably wrote Measure for Measure between 1603 and 1604 and staged it in London on December 26, 1604, before King James I. Publication Measure for Measure was first published in 1623 in the First Folio , the first authorized collection of Shakespeare's plays. Sources Shakespeare based Measure for Measure on "The Story of Epitia" in a collection entitled Hecatommithi (A Hundred Tales), by Italian writer Giovanni Battista Giraldi (1504-1573), who was often referred to as Cinthio. However, Shakespeare may have drawn heavily on an English adaptation of this story ï¿½ By Michael J.

Cummings...ï¿½ 2003, 2008, 2011 .. Vincentio, Duke of Vienna, is a good and kindly ruler. However, he has been lenient to a fault. Consequently, vice has thrived in his city for nineteen years. So he decides to leave town for a while to allow his stern chief deputy, Angelo, to run the government, assisted by the dukeï¿½s counselor, Escalus. Vincentio plans to return to town in disguise to observe how the city fares under Angeloï¿½s rule. Although he has announced that he is going to Poland on state business, Vincentio travels instead to a monastery. There, a priest, Friar Thomas, agrees to provide him a hooded monkï¿½s robe to serve as his disguise when he returns to Vienna. After assuming control as chief law-enforcement officer of Venice, Angelo, who prides himself on his own strict moral code, vows to enforce every statute to the letter of the law. In a blink of his severe eyes, he closes the houses of prostitution and arrests Claudio, a young nobleman, for getting his sweetheart, Juliet, pregnant.

Under provisions of an old law that had long been ignored, Claudio is to be executed in three days. Claudio says he had long wished to marry Juliet, whom he truly loves, but could not because of financial problems. Lucio, a friend of Claudio, reports the news of the arrest to Claudioï¿½s sister, Isabella, an aspiring nun. She lives in a cloistered convent governed by strict rules that she thinks should be even stricter. Lucio suggests that she use her womanly power to persuade Angelo not to execute her brother. Although Isabella has plenty of what it takes for the taskï¿½namely charm and exceptional beautyï¿½she doubts that she can succeed. But Lucio tells her that Our doubts are traitors To have a giantï¿½s strength; but it is tyrannous To use it like a giant. (2.2.133-135 ) A moment later, Angeloï¿½smitten with Isabellaï¿½s comelinessï¿½has second thoughts and tells her, ï¿½I will bethink me: come again tomorrowï¿½ (2.2.173).

When she leaves, Angeloï¿½s libido quickens as he says that ï¿½this virtuous maid / Subdues me quiteï¿½ (2.2.219-220). After Isabella returns the following day, Angelo declares that he will spare her brother if she goes to bed with him. ï¿½You must lay down the treasures of your bodyï¿½ (2.4.108), he says. When Isabella refuses, Angelo says the execution will take place as planned. Isabella replies, Better it were a brother died at once, Than that a sister, by redeeming him, Should die for ever. (2.4.119-121) Later, when Isabella visits Claudio, she informs him of Angeloï¿½s proposal. At first, Claudio tells her not to cooperate with Angelo. However, he later weakens as he ponders death. ï¿½Sweet sister, let me liveï¿½ (3.1.147), he pleads. He argues that committing a sin to save his life would be a virtuous act.

Isabella denounces him as a beast, a coward, and a wretch. She says, ï¿½Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice?ï¿½ (3.1.153). Meanwhile, Vincentio has returned to town in his friarï¿½s guise. When he spies around, he overhears Isabella and Claudio discussing Claudioï¿½s plight. The helpful ï¿½friarï¿½ then suggests to Isabella a way out for Claudio: Isabella must agree to submit to Angelo. However, another woman, Mariana, will take her place in the darkness of the bedroom. Angelo and Mariana were to marry five years earlier, but Angelo refused to go through with the ceremony after Marianaï¿½s dowry was lost. When Mariana agrees to take Isabellaï¿½s place, Duke Vincentio (still disguised as a friar) tells Mariana she will commit no wrong by sleeping with Angelo: ï¿½He is your husband on a pre-contract: / To bring you thus together, ï¿½tis no sinï¿½ (4.1.73-74).

When Mariana meets Angelo in a midnight tryst, all goes according to plan. Afterward, however, Angelo worries that Claudio, if released, will seek revenge against him. So Angelo decides to proceed with the execution of Claudio and tells the prison warden to send him Claudioï¿½s head. Duke Vincentio, still disguised as a friar, intervenes, persuading the prison warden to spare Claudio. But what about the decapitated head? Conveniently, a no-account pirate named Ragozine has just died in the prison of natural causes. Because his face resembles that of Claudio, the warden substitutes his head for Claudioï¿½s. Meanwhile, ï¿½Friar Vincentioï¿½ allows Isabella to believe that Claudio has been executed. Determined to expose Angelo for what he is, Vincentio wants Isabella to be ripe with righteous anger when it comes time to trap Angelo. When Duke Vincentio doffs his disguise and reappears as himself, Isabella accuses Angelo of murdering her brother. Vincentio rejects the charge and orders her to be tried by Angelo.

Marianaï¿½s claim that she was jilted by Angelo is to be considered also. Vincentio then disappears to change back into his friarï¿½s guise to speak on behalf of the two ladies. (He has incriminating evidence against Angelo that he gleaned while spying in disguise.) When accused of lying, he removes his disguise and once more reveals himself as the duke. Angelo, realizing that the game is up, asks to be executed to avoid a degrading trial. Mariana, steadfast in her love for Angelo (who knows why), pleads for his life. So does the kind-hearted Isabella even though she believes Angelo ordered her brotherï¿½s death. (Her brother is, of course, still alive.) Mercy and a happy ending triumph. Claudio returns from the dead to wed Juliet. Angelo is spared and marries Mariana. Duke Vincentio addresses the happy couples: She, Claudio, that you wrongï¿½d, look you restore. Joy to you, Mariana!

love her, Angelo: I have confessï¿½d her and I know her virtue.ï¿½ (5.1.539-541) The duke then begs the hand of Isabella, telling her that I have a motion much imports your good; Whereto if youï¿½ll a willing ear incline, Whatï¿½s mine is yours, and what is yours is mine. (1.5.549-551) . Tone The tone of the play is serious most of the time but comic in scenes involving Elbow, Pompey, Froth, and Mistress Overdone. .Climax. The climax occurs in Act V when Isabella reveals Angelo as a villain (although everyone forgives him), Claudio gains his freedom, and wedding bells ring for three couples. . Like rats that ravin down their proper bane, A thirsty evil; and when we drink we die. (1.2.78-80) Generally, the women accept their lot without protest and even professionalize it by selling themselves in disease-ridden brothels.

After Angelo pronounces a death sentence, beheading, on Claudio for his immoral behavior, Angeloï¿½supposedly upright and principledï¿½tries to pressure Isabella into going to bed with him in exchange for the release of her brother, Claudio. However, unlike other women in the play who willingly submit to men in private or at a brothel, Isabella refuses to compromise her chastityï¿½even if her refusal means her brother must lose his head. Her stand against Angelo provides hope that morally corrupt Vienna can reform. Claudio Becomes Hamletï¿½for a Moment Facing execution, Claudio muses about death in the same way that Hamlet does in his ï¿½To be or not to beï¿½ soliloquy. The thought of what happens after death unnerves both Claudio and Hamlet. They wish to cling to the here and now as long as possible.

Claudio vividly describes the possibilities in a conversation with his sister, telling her that To die, and go we know not where; To lie in cold obstruction and to rot; This sensible warm motion THE STAGE - 'MEASURE FOR MEASURE' - NYTimes.com THE STAGE: 'MEASURE FOR MEASURE' By D. J. R. BRUCKNER Published: July 2, 1985 THE ''Measure for Measure'' Joseph Papp has created for the Shakespeare Festival takes its appearance, and some of its tone, from ''Die Fledermaus.'' This is not the Vienna Shakespeare set the play in, nor the turn of the 17th century; it is the city of the emperor Franz Josef at the turn of this century. Men wear cutaways, double-breasted suits with waistcoats, homburgs, gray gloves, high wing collars; the women's hats are all ribbons and feathers and the brothel mistress looks like a kewpie doll. They all move through the complex action of the play on the six levels of a latticework palace with the grace, precision and speed of dancers.

The deliberate evocation of the comic opera, in the costumes and setting, signals Mr. Papp's reading of the play: no matter what conflicts or wrenching of conscience it involves, it is a comedy and he will pursue the compassionate wisdom of its last act through laughter more than through pain or puzzlement. The key is Mr. Papp's conception of the Duke, Vincentio. In the play the Duke announces he is leaving Vienna on a trip and turning power over to a young deputy, the virtuous Angelo. Angelo sentences a noble, Claudio, to death for making his fiancee pregnant. But when Claudio's sister, Isabella, comes to plead with him for mercy, Angelo is overcome by his lust for her and demands an hour in the dark with her in return for Claudio's life. At the assignation Isabella's place is taken by Mariana, whom Angelo had long ago jilted, and even though he thinks his desire has been satisfied he insists on the execution of Claudio.

But behind the scenes, manipulating the actions of Isabella, Mariana, Claudio and others, is a friar, the Duke in disguise, who had only pretended to go away so he could really stay around unrecognized and observe life in his city. And finally it is he who, having ''returned'' to the city, has to resolve all the conflicts. Shakespeare clearly wrote the Duke as an older man and he is usually played that way. In the days when people loved stories of good rulers in disguise who corrected evil, the manipulative shenanigans of this plot might have distressed no one. But for a modern audience the thought of a wise, older Duke doing all these things adds to other problems of credibility in the play. Mr. Papp's Duke, John Getz, is made to look and act much younger. He is in his 30's, an attractive, likeable busybody with a touch of innocence, easy-going, amused by life and fond of a smile. The actions of the Duke in the play seem altogether more believable in such a man than they do in someone who is supposed to be older and more dignified. By focusing the play on a Duke so conceived, Mr.

Papp has rationalized the contrivances of the plot, lifted some emotional pressure from the painful stories of Claudio, Angelo and Isabella and given a remarkable unity to the play. As the Duke Mr. Getz in his confident way runs the show. His interpretation of a good-humored Duke hiding underneath a somewhat whimsical friar from whom events seem to get away is a piece of great comic sophistication. And when he emerges as the ruler again he has the right touch of steel. His slight suggestion of world-weariness throughout is an ironic comment not only on the antics of his subjects, but on the plot of the play. And when he speaks he lets the poetry be heard as the natural speech it is in the play. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio creates a feisty Isabella who is at her best in the heat of a fight - with her brother when he is abjectly pleading for his life, with Angelo when his passion overwhelms him, with the Duke when he pretends not to believe her accusations against his deputy.

Laura MacDermott, as the abused and ever-faithful Mariana, is a good foil for her, and in the last scene, when Mariana and Isabella both plead for Angelo's life, Miss MacDermott and Miss Mastrantonio sound like two perfectly matched instruments and look like a pair no man would dare to deny. In this conception of the play, Angelo, played by Richard Jordan, is a trying role. He is older than the character is usually portrayed, and Mr. Jordan is very good at making one feel his revulsion and disgust with himself over his lack of self-control and his great remorse at his crime. But this character is the only one who has no comic line to relieve the somberness and Mr. Jordan seems ill at ease as the odd man out. His speech and movements are so stiff he loses one's sympathy and possibly one's interest. Joe Urla has an easier task as Claudio. Under a death penalty up to the end of the play, and seeing his hopes for reprieve dashed repeatedly, he can be played as a pathetic figure.

But there is a lot of material here that can be turned into good comedy, especially in his confused efforts to convince Isabella she might give in for him, and Mr. Urla is a crafty humorist in that crucial scene. Great care has been given to the low-life characters - Pompey, Elbow, Froth, Mistress Overdone, Barnardine, Abhorson the hangman. Nathan Lane as Pompey gets two laughs for every one Shakespeare wrote in his lines, but he also raises his role out of farce and into comedy. Gregory Salata turns in the best comic performance of the evening, however, as Lucio. There is enough of a Damon Runyon character in him to make it seem natural for him to be hanging around a court, or city hall, as well as around brothels and bars. And Mr. Salata's performance, when Lucio badmouths the Duke to the friar who is really the Duke, and then the friar to the Duke who had been the friar, is an ingenious mixture of servility, braggadocio, arrogance and mere stupidity that is enthralling to watch and hear. Undoubtedly there will be diehards who will be annoyed with Mr.

Papp for dressing up Shakespeare this way and for his whole realization of the play. He undoubtedly reshapes its emotional contours and mutes some favorite agonies and anguishes. And once in a while his comedy gets a little too broad. But the Shakespeare play is all here - including the serious discussions of ethics and the plight of people who live under a bad government. Nor is the pain of Claudio, Isabella, Mariana and Angelo unfelt; it just doesn't hurt as much. There are many ways to look at this strange, appealing play. Mr. Papp has furnished a new one that is intelligent, attractive and revealing. Viennese Waltz MEASURE FOR MEASURE, by William Shakespeare; directed by Joseph Papp; scenic design by Robin Wagner; costumes by Lindsay W. Davis; lighting by Richard Nelson; music by Allen Shawn; wigs by Charles LoPresto; associate producer, Jason Steven Cohen. Presented by Mr. Papp, with the cooperation of the City of New York, in association with New York Telephone. At the Delacorte Theater, Central Park West at 81st Street. VincentioJohn Getz EscalusJoseph Warren AngeloRichard Jordan LucioGregory Salata Gentleman No.

1Reg E. Cathey Gentleman No. 2John N.

Cutler Mistress OverdoneRosemary DeAngelis PompeyNathan Lane ClaudioJoe Urla ProvostTom Mardirosian Friar ThomasJohn Wylie IsabellaMary Elizabeth Mastrantonio FranciscaGretchen Taylor ElbowTom Toner FrothRobert Stanton JusticeSteven Dawn Angelo's ServantMark Zeisler JulietElizabeth Perkins MariannaLaura MacDermott AbhorsonAntonio Fargas BarnardineWilliam Duff-Griffin Friar PeterEldon Bullock VarriusRalph Zito Officers Kevin Dwyer, Ken Forman, Joseph Gargiulo and Rick Parks Young FriarHoward Samuelsohn TownswomanErika Gregory Nun and MidwifeTeri Tirapelli photo of Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (Martha Swope); photo of John Getz Keith Gallasch on “Measure for Measure” Keith Gallasch on “Measure for Measure” Keith Gallasch on “Measure for Measure” SHAKESPEARE’S MEASURE FOR MEASURE HAS LONG BEEN REGARDED AS A ‘PROBLEM PLAY.’ IT’S A CLASSICAL COMEDY IN MANY RESPECTS, FOCUSED ON LOVE AND EVERYDAY SEXUAL MORES, LOADED WITH HIDDEN IDENTITIES

, SUBSTITUTIONS AND COMICAL MISCALCULATIONS AND IS RESOLVED WITH A WELTER OF MARRIAGES INDICATIVE OF SOCIAL RENEWAL.

HOWEVER, THE PLAY’S TONE IS SURPRISINGLY DARK FOR A COMEDY, IF NOT BLACK, ALTHOUGH BENEDICT ANDREWS’ PRODUCTION FOR COMPANY B SOMETIMES APTLY PAINTS IT SO. WHILE THE THREAT OF DEATH IS NOT UNCOMMON IN COMEDY, IT’S USUALLY TREATED LIGHTLY, BUT HERE SHAKESPEARE MAKES ITS LIKELIHOOD PALPABLE. THE SUFFERING OF THE PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS IS PAINFULLY ACUTE AS THE LAW TURNS UNJUST AND A CRUEL INEVITABILITY TAKES OVER—TRAGEDY IS IMMINENT. Measure for Measure (1604) is snared by the dark side of politics. That’s not unusual for a comedy of the first decade of 17th century London, but here state power is enacted with such severity and in such an un-comedic vein that the play teeters uncomfortably between genres. This is especially so at the end when Shakespeare attempts to balance the return of justice with the demands of comic resolution.

This complication is amplified in the final act by a deus ex machina who is the principal cause of the near tragedy. Consequently, while it makes fine fodder for literary debate, Measure for Measure is not frequently produced and the directorial challenge to achieve a unity of vision is formidable. However, while the ending of the play remains forever problematic, the relationship between serious drama and comedy is, for the most part, dynamic. Disturbed by a rise in sexual licentiousness among his citizens, the Duke of Vienna (Robert Menzies) absents himself, leaving the city in the hands of a trusted deputy, the morally respectable Angelo (Damon Gameau) who immediately commences a series of brutal prosecutions at all levels of society. Prostitutes, bawds, officers of the law, citizens and politicians are suddenly thrust together. Measure for Measure is kin to the satirical Jacobean city comedies of the 1600s—urban, licentious and laced with droll seriousness, as when the bawd Pompey (Arky Michael), forced to become an executioner’s assistant, decries the ‘mystique’ of haughty executioners.

The Provost (Steve Rodgers) concurs in a retort to the offended executioner, “Go to, sir, you weigh equally [with bawds]: a feather will turn the scale.” Comedy and drama are at one in the play’s struggle to balance personal freedom and the demands of law, not least when power is being abused. Angelo decides to execute Claudio (Chris Ryan) who has impregnated his fiancée, Julietta (Maeve Dermody). Angelo then demands the sexual favours of Claudio’s sister, Isabella (Robin McLeavy), a novice nun, in return for her brother’s life, a bargain he has no intention of honouring. Benedict Andrews keeps the comedy rude and raw, even grossing it up with an early group sex and pillow fight scene (the world awash with feathers for the remainder of the first half of the play) and later with Lucio (Toby Schmitz) engaging furiously in frottage and penetration with a tiger lily. It’s as if to say, yes, the city is depraved, but which is the greater evil—general licentiousness or the abuse of power?

The sense of a coherent world is made more concrete by having all of the action occur within one intensively surveilled room. As it revolves it becomes other spaces (nunnery, cell, office) but its commonality is produced by the space reducing cameras hand-wielded or secreted in ceilings by the mass media or the state and the Duke’s personal surveillance in his guise as a man of the church manipulating the action. The result is a closed, dangerous world where everything is bared and controllable. The revolving room is framed either side by large screens which provide close-ups of the characters and medium shots of character groupings, offering alternative layers of comment and emotional intensity. The sense of portraiture is particularly strong (the printed program reproduces Giorgio Agamben’s essay “The Face”). Flickering into focus, still, listening faces appear like paintings—Isabella as if rendered by Vermeer. At other times the images are hard—the over-lit pornography of interrogation and intrusion. Actors take turns at operating cameras, standing mid-action, ignored by the characters they’re filming and eventually by the audience, so familiar is the idiom, its power neglected at our peril.

We peer at faces, looking as we do in portraiture for some kind of truth or essence and with increasing uncertainty. The interplay of live action and its immediate screening is engrossing, even in a small theatre where you often have to choose where to direct your attention (especially if you’re sitting close to the stage—not an ideal position). Some moments become almost entirely cinematic, one of the most affecting being when Isabella tells her doomed brother that she cannot rescue him from death. In low blue light the stage is almost dark, brother and sister initially either side of a glass wall, her face reflected over his, amplifying the sense of kinship at the same time as a terrible moral divide. Ryan and McLeavy, advantaged as well by head microphones, play the scene with a low key, nuanced intensity. Sean Bacon dexterously live edits the camerawork with an air of improvisation while simultaneously, assured artistry is evident in every carefully framed image right down to the panning shots across fallen feathers as scenes are bridged.

As usual with Benedict Andrews there’s a bracing thoroughness in the way he takes a conceit, gives it body and weaves it through his productions, just as Shakespeare does with metaphor and its embodiment. The video shooting is seamlessly integrated into the action—Isabella huddles in a cupboard, aiming a camera at herself; the arrested Claudio spits into the lens; the death row prisoner, Barnadine (Colin Moody), face-painted with blood and faeces after trashing the hotel holding room he’s been locked in, leers into the surveillance camera—he knows he has an audience. We watch characters going to the toilet, being subjected to urine tests and genetic swabbing as a matter of course. When the Duke steps out of the surveillance frame it’s a shock—he needs greater distance from his world than a disguise can allow. It’s also preparation for the very final moment of the production: it had the audience cheering and, in a way, answered at least one ‘problem’ inherent in the play—but you need to see that for yourself.

McLeavy is excellent as Isabella, making the most of the young woman’s alternations between hesitation and determination, above all marking her surprise, right to the end, at the world in which she has found herself. Her sudden, angry insight into the wrong done Claudio by Angelo is powered by logic—no wonder he is taken by her. Yet, she cannot fully understand her brother’s anguish at her refusal to surrender to Angelo. (Another of the play’s ‘problems’ is that although she aids the outing of her nemesis, it is eagerly at the ‘expense’ of another woman going to Angelo’s bed in her stead.) Frank Whitten makes a fine Escalus, an older statesman trapped between Angelo’s dictatorial actions and his own sense of fair play. Arky Michael is a sympathetic, funny Pompey and the sense of desperation and panic among the bawds is convincing as the law is forcefully enacted. I was less certain about Damon Gameau as Angelo. Except for the moment Angelo speaks with sheer surprise at his attraction to Isabella (running a hand over an erection), the portrayal seemed oddly neutral—as if Angelo is all enigma, a man not to be gauged except by reputation.

Where was the personality, evidence of the will that could frighten the populace and compromise fair men like Escalus? Robert Menzies as the Duke was at his best in the long final scene, fiery, fast, in control, cruelly if logically playing out a game to trap Angelo. His anxious, machinating and sometimes shocked friar was less convincing—could there have been more to the Duke and his friar self than the stolid interiority that emerges from time to time in Menzies’ performances, as in his Brutus for Andrews’ Julius Caesar for the Sydney Theatre Company. Toby Schmitz’s Lucio is a highlight—all at once an exemplar of the city’s debauchery, a loyal friend to Claudio (it’s Lucio who persuades Isabella to act) and an otherwise obtuse judge of personalities and situations. Schmitz creates a tunnel vision personality, cocky, rude and stylishly contemporary, while making remarkably easy sense of Shakespeare’s language. Although not entirely convinced by the accounts of the Duke and Angelo, I nonetheless found Andrews’ production to have a marvellous cogency in its sense of a self-contained world, amoral but soon painfully intent on achieving a balance between law and justice.

The Duke’s city has real problems which are presented with apt rawness, visually and loudly. At other moments, Measure for Measure is played and intimately projected with the requisite delicacy, if always underpinned with urgency. Andrews and his collaborators make Measure for Measure a play for our times, bringing to the stage the invasive cameras of news media and surveillance as the latest tools of power, cruelly distorting prisms that nonetheless, and quite ironically, allow us here to see further than we usually might. Keith Gallasch, 2010 This article originally appeared in RealTime 98 and is reproduced with the permission of the writer and the publisher, Open City; Measure For Measure | Colorado Shakespeare Festival Colorado Shakespeare Festival June 1 1998 directed by Robert Cohen Vienna's Duke, Vincentio, concerned about the citizens' general disregard for moral and civil law, makes an unusual decision: he temporarily surrenders command to his deputy, Angelo while disguising himself as a Friar to observe Angelo's government. Angelo's first act is to imprison Claudio for having gotten his betrothed, Juliet, with child and to sentence Claudio to death.

Claudio's sister, Isabella, who is to become a nun, learns of her brother impending death and goes to plead with Angelo. He requests that she return the next day, at which time he proposes an ultimatum: if she will sleep with him, he will allow her brother to live. Horrified, Isabella tells Claudio of Angelo's plan, but to her surprise Claudio tells her to submit. She refuses. The Duke/Friar, who has become her confidant, suggests that Mariana, Angelo's former fiancee, should go in Isabella's place. Both women accept the plan. Mariana poses as Isabella to meet Angelo, but the deputy enforces Claudio's death sentence. When the Duke leaves behind his disguise as a Friar and returns to take up his place as ruler, he must find a way to bring justice and mercy to Vienna. Date Further Reading Shakespeare is known for complex characters, elegant verse, and universal themes--the bard's timeless drama speaks to the beauty and horror of the human condition. Measure for Measure is no exception.

An edgy and satiric comedy, Measure for Measure, perhaps more than any other of Shakespeare's plays, is stikingly modern in its provocative exploration and questioning of sexual politics, law and morality. Vienna's Duke, Vincentio, concerned about the citizens' general disregard for moral and civil law, makes an unusual decision: he temporarily surrenders command to his deputy, Angelo while disguising himself as a Friar to observe Angelo's government. Angelo's first act is to imprison Claudio for having gotten his betrothed, Juliet, with child and to sentence Claudio to death. Claudio's sister, Isabella, who is to become a nun, learns of her brother impending death and goes to plead with Angelo. He requests that she return the next day, at which time he proposes an ultimatum: if she will sleep with him, he will allow her brother to live. Horrified, Isabella tells Claudio of Angelo's plan, but to her surprise Claudio tells her to submit. She refuses. The Duke/Friar, who has become her confidant, suggests that Mariana, Angelo's former fiancee, should go in Isabella's place. Both women accept the plan.

Mariana poses as Isabella to meet Angelo, but the deputy enforces Claudio's death sentence. When the Duke leaves behind his disguise as a Friar and returns to take up his place as ruler, he must find a way to bring justice and mercy to Vienna. The Colorado Shakespeare Festival's production of Measure for Measure, directed by Robert Cohen, sharply focuses the play's themes of politics, sex, and morality by modernizing the setting to World War II, 1930's Nazi occupied Vienna, Austria. The set, designed by Bill Forrester, is Victorian Gothic, aged, richly European, and representative of old world Vienna. The first scene of Measure for Measure is set in the "old world" of political power, a world of the aristocracy controlled by the Duke. However, a changing of the political guard is underway, for the Duke is passing his somewhat sagging "old world" political power to the young, strict "prenzie" Angelo, who represents a new era of military power, and ideology. In the context of the play, there is a clash between the "old" vision of the world, morality, duty and government as represented by the Duke, with Angelo's "new" more cruel world.

The contrast is realized in the actual design of the set: the Victorian Gothic style arhitecture is backgrounded with a neon-lit city. Other worlds also are represented as the set shifts: the religious cloister, the prison cell--all places where the "others" of society are locked away. The military and religious worlds of the play are clearly represented in Madeline Kozlowski's clean, severe costume design. The strong, bold red, gold and white atop the austere blacks and grey are reminicent of the battle field--and the convent. In direct contrast to these aescetic designs, are the costumes for the people of the "underworld" of Viennese society. The prostitutes' leopard patterns, fox stoles, and thigh highs reinforce the separation between the aristorcracy and the seedy underworld, further distinguishing the the stratas of social class. At the opening of the play, the Duke has turned the state over to Angelo. Quickly, a just, merciful government turns sour as Angelo enforces the law with stricture. Sentencing Claudio to death for having seduced a woman, Angelo's punishment is severe.

However, Angelo's strict moral codes comes into question when he propositions the fair, chaste Isabella, asking for sex in exchange for her brother's life. In essence, he attempts to commit the same action for which he is punishing his subjects, seemingly without conscience. In the world of the play, politics and sexuality come crashing together--a theme that is not all all unfamiliar to contemporary society. Isabella's conflict in the play has a deep moral center. She wants to become a nun, but can only save her brother's life by surrendering her chastity to Angelo. When she says, "More than our brother is our chastity" (2.4, 185), is she cruel, selfish--or does she adhere to a morality that seems simply unfashionable to a modern audience? She is not an easy heroine. Like Angelo, Isabella's strong sense of right and wrong leads her to extreme action, guided by her anger. She does manage a way out of the situation, however, by acquiescing to a plan suggested by the Duke/Friar--the bed-trick in which Mariana will take her place in a liaison with Angelo.

Isabella's chastity remains intact, but not unthreatened as the play concludes. Measure for Measure is a play filled with disguises, shifty identity, and characters engaging in deep self-examination. Isabella, the Duke, Angelo, Claudio: all undergo traumas which force them to question themselves, their morals, and their innermost values under extreme conditions. As an audience, we participate in the character's internal duel, and ultimately we attempt to classify and judge them. But all of the above mentioned characters resist easy classification, and it is perhaps this quality that makes Measure for Measure so powerful and provocative--as we observe their struggle, we recognize that it is also our own. 2017 Plays

Question: 15Â  Which city is the setting for Shakespeare's (comedy) play 'Measure for Measure'?
Answer: Vienna